Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Bulgaria
Participating broadcasterBulgarian National Television (BNT)
Participation summary
Appearances7
First appearance2007
Last appearance2021
Highest placement2nd: 2014
Host2015
Participation history
External links
Bulgaria's page at JuniorEurovision.tv Edit this at Wikidata
For the most recent participation see
Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Bulgaria participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2007. Bulgarian National Television (BNT), a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have been responsible for the selection process of their participants, since their debut in 2007. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2007 contest was Bon-Bon with the song "Bonbolandiya", which finished in 7th place out of 17 participating entries, achieving a score of 86 points. There has been four absences from the competition, those being in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Bulgaria's return to the contest in 2014 proved to be successful, when Krisia, Hasan and Ibrahim represented them with the song "Planet of the Children", achieving 147 points and finishing in second place out of 16 participating countries, it compared to Eurovision Song Contest 2017 when the country finished in 2nd place and gained the country's best ever result in a Eurovision competition. They hosted the contest at Arena Armeec in 2015. On 11 June 2016, Lidia Ganeva won the national selection "Decata na Bulgaria sa super", earning the right to represent Bulgaria at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016, in Valletta, Malta. Ganeva performed the internally selected song "Magical Day (Valsheben den)" at the contest. She received 161 points and therefore finished in 9th place out of 17 participating countries. Their next appearance in the contest was in 2021, where Denislava and Martin achieved the country's worst result to date; 16th place out of 19 participating entries with the song "Voice of Love".

History

Krisia Todorova during the opening act of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Sofia
Gabriela Yordanova and Ivan Stoyanov at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Lidia Ganeva at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Valletta

Bulgaria has entered the Junior Eurovision Song Contest six times, first entering in 2007. Bulgaria's first entry was Bon-Bon with "Bonbolandiya", which finished 7th at the 2007 contest in Rotterdam. Their second entry was Krestiana Kresteva with "Edna mechta", which finished 15th and last at the 2008 contest, receiving only 15 points. The Bulgarian broadcaster BNT withdrew from the 2009 contest, and Bulgaria did not compete in the contest in Kyiv or at the 2010 edition in Minsk. Bulgaria returned for the 2011 contest in Yerevan, then they took a break from the 2012 and the 2013 contests.

Bulgaria returned for the 2014 edition in Malta, earning their best ever result in a Eurovision competition when Krisia, Hasan and Ibrahim placed second performing "Planet of the Children".[1] Their success helped reinvigorate public interest in the contest. According to Google Trends, Junior Eurovision was the eighth fastest trending event in Bulgaria for 2014, ahead of the Australian Open 2014 and New Year's 2014.[2]

On 26 January 2015, it was announced that Bulgaria would host the 2015 edition at the Arena Armeec in Sofia on 21 November.[3] The 2015 junior contest has been credited by some for providing BNT with the financial support they needed to return to the adult Eurovision in 2016, for their first Eurovision since 2013 - perhaps not coincidentally, their entrant in Stockholm was the Junior Eurovision's 2015 host, Poli Genova. In June 2016 BNT selected their artist for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Valletta, Lidia Ganeva. After initially confirming their participation for the 2017 contest in Georgia,[4] Bulgaria withdrew their application due to restructuring within the broadcaster[5] and did not appear on the final list of countries released by the EBU on 9 August 2017. On 28 April 2021, Bulgaria announced they would not return in 2021.[6] However, on 2 September 2021, Bulgaria was confirmed to be returning to the contest after last participating in 2016.[7] Bulgaria once again withdrew from the 2022 edition for unknown reasons, although they had originally confirmed participation.

Participation overview

Table key
2 Second place
◁ Last place
Year Artist Song Language Place Points
2007 Bon-Bon "Bonbolandiya" (Бонболандия) Bulgarian 7 86
2008 Krestiana Kresteva "Edna mechta" (Една мечта) Bulgarian 15 ◁ 15
2011 Ivan Ivanov "Superhero" Bulgarian 8 60
2014 Krisia, Hasan and Ibrahim "Planet of the Children" Bulgarian 2 147
2015 Gabriela Yordanova and Ivan Stoyanov "Colour of Hope" Bulgarian 9 62
2016 Lidia Ganeva "Magical Day (Valsheben den)" (Вълшебен ден) Bulgarian, English 9 161
2021 Denislava and Martin "Voice of Love" Bulgarian, English 16 77

Awards

Winners of the press vote

Year Song Artist Place Points Host city Ref.
2014 "Planet of the Children" Krisia, Hasan and Ibrahim 2 147 Malta Marsa [8]

Commentators and spokespersons

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov.[9] The Bulgarian broadcaster, BNT, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the Bulgarian language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Bulgaria. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2007.

Year Commentator Spokesperson
2007 Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev Lyubomir Hadjiyski
2008 Marina Baltadzi
2009–2010 No broadcast Did not participate
2011 Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev Samuil Sarandev-Sancho
2012–2013 No broadcast Did not participate
2014 Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev Ina Angelova
2015 Vladimir Petkov
2016 Milen Pavlov
2017–2020 No broadcast Did not participate
2021 Elena Rosberg and Petko Kralev Arianne
2022–2023 No broadcast Did not participate

Hostings

Year Location Venue Presenters
2015 Sofia Arena Armeec Poli Genova[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Fisher, Luke James (31 July 2014). "Bulgarian return confirmed". JuniorEurovision.tv. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  2. ^ Adams, William Lee (17 December 2014). "Not Just Conchita Wurst: Eurovision Stars Top Google Trends 2014". wiwibloggs. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  3. ^ Lockett, Katherine (30 March 2015). "Junior Eurovision 2015: 21 November in Sofia, Bulgaria". JuniorEurovision.tv. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  4. ^ García, Belén (23 May 2017). "Bulgaria confirms participation at Junior Eurovision 2017". esc-plus.com. ESC+Plus. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  5. ^ Granger, Anthony (7 June 2017). "Bulgaria: Rescinds Confirmation of Participation in Junior Eurovision 2017". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  6. ^ "Bulgaria: No comeback for the country in Junior Eurovision 2021 | INFE". 28 April 2021.
  7. ^ "19 participants for 19th Junior Eurovision Song Contest". 2 September 2021.
  8. ^ Adams, William Lee (17 November 2014). "Junior Eurovision 2014: Bulgaria's Krisia won the press vote". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  9. ^ Fisher, Luke James (21 November 2015). "Tonight: Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015!". Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Bulgaria 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  10. ^ Fisher, Luke (21 October 2015). "Meet your host... Poli Genova!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
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Bulgaria in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest